Be warned, more expensive doesn't always mean better quality. For example, the Hobbico Nexstar is $400, but before Sun_Kissed_Girl's instructor flew it, he asked that I disable the AFS, and take off the flaps. He said to leave the airfoil extensions in place. Also, the simulator is rather limited, and Sun_Kissed_Girl just comes over and steals my RealFlight Generation II when she wants to practice. The Avistar as Missleman recommended is the plane that I soloed on two years ago, and it served me well. To date, its had 15 broken propellers, one complete engine flush and rebuild, 4 crashes (one just today, dang 20MPH crosswind) and it still flies.

Some advice that I think is excellent is what Piper_Chuck said in a post about 6 months ago if I remember, and that was to buy a low cost ARF trainer (such as the [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCAS2&P=0]Tower Hobbies Tower Trainer ARF[/link]) and a good engine and radio right in the beginning. You will gain the experience by mounting and aligning everything, and have a better engine and radio to put in a new plane once your trainer hangs from the ceiling as a trophy of your sucess. (Okay, the last part was mine). The reason for a low cost ARF trainer is so you can save the money toward a bigger and better plane once you outgrow the trainer.

The most important thing to know is to find a local R/C airplane club and an instructor. Otherwise, I can almost guarantee that your first flight will be less than 3 minutes in duration. Enjoy flying!

And to go along with what Mike said, if you were to go out and get the Futaba 9CAP, then I suggest to get the 9CHP just incase a helicopter makes its way into your hangar. But I also suggest that you get whatever radio is most popular at your flying club, so you can have compatibilty with an instructor's radio.

And as I scroll up the thread more, I find that Piper_Chuck has already posted what I was typing in the beginning of this post, so there you go! [sm=thumbup.gif]